Mark Woods: National parks bear history, not just beauty
Submitted by Mark Woods on November 9, 2011 - 4:57am Mark Woods' Blog
We often celebrate Veterans Day and Memorial Day with festive parades through crowded streets and solemn ceremonies at stone monuments.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with that. But here’s another option: Visit a national park, maybe even a few of the National Park Service sites right in our backyard.
When we talk about the national parks, we tend to think of natural beauty, of breathtaking vistas. But as I’ve started to plan for next year’s adventure, I’ve been reminded just how much our national parks are devoted to preserving and remembering history.
A few weeks ago, I went to Washington to meet with some of the people shaping the future of the parks. Tom Kiernan, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, described going to Australia recently to discuss what we’ve done with our national parks.
He said that Australian parks certainly have an abundance of natural beauty, but they don’t have the historical element. That is part of what makes our system of parks unique. Kiernan can leave his office, walk through the National Mall and find his father’s name on the Vietnam Wall.
The history is hardly limited to places like Washington, Gettysburg and one of the newest National Park Service sites, the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa. More than half of the nearly 400 sites are cultural-historical parks. And even more than that are a mix of natural, cultural and historical resources.
We have some prime examples of that close by, including a place with a one-of-kind designation and a name that is both cumbersome and fitting: the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve.
Last year, when I was working on a story about Willie Browne and the Theodore Roosevelt Area, I asked lead ranger Craig Morris to tell me what makes the 46,000 acres in the preserve special. He talked not only about the broad mix of ecosystems, the pieces of old Florida, but about the broad spectrum of history.
He tells people that, in some way, every major time period in American history is represented in the Timucuan Preserve — starting with the Indians who lived who lived here for centuries and continuing through a timeline of American history.
“That’s what is unique about this park,” Morris said. “Every heartbeat of our national heritage is felt here.”
The preserve is the site of battles between the first European settlers, the southernmost battlefield of the Revolutionary War, repeated Civil War clashes, Spanish-American War history, even a watery piece of World War II.
“I joke that if you want to win a free drink in a bar, ask someone who was the last European invader of Florida,” Morris said. “It’s technically this Nazi U-boat that comes up the mouth of the river and past the [current] boundary of the preserve.”
To the north and south, from Fort Frederica to Cumberland Island to Fort Matanzas, you’ll find more national parks with more history.
And, yes, you’ll also find some pretty beautiful places.
mark.woods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212
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